Can anyone recommend a good quality HDMI-to-composite converter? My goal is to play video content (Netflix, etc.) on my iPhone and pipe the output to my Blonder-Tongue agile modulator to broadcast to vintage TVs in my house. I already have an Apple AV adapter that plugs into the phone's Lightning port and gives HDMI output.

Shopping around online, I see quite a few options, ranging in price from under $20 to a few hundred bucks. Has anyone tried one of these?

However, by the time you take the 20% wholesale discount you get by registering, the exchange rate (AU$1 = US$0.68) and the shipping cost it works out not that much different for us here. Plus we get it the next day.

Last year I bought and tested every model I could find on the market today and I was dissatisfied with all of them. The problem is that none properly handled the 16x9 to 4x3 conversion. What I wanted was one that would center-cut the 16x9 image. However, I would have settled for a letter-box conversion (black bars on the top and bottom). None would do this. They all distorted the image by compressing it horizontally to fit.

Last year I bought and tested every model I could find on the market today and I was dissatisfied with all of them. The problem is that none properly handled the 16x9 to 4x3 conversion. What I wanted was one that would center-cut the 16x9 image. However, I would have settled for a letter-box conversion (black bars on the top and bottom). None would do this. They all distorted the image by compressing it horizontally to fit.

-Matthew

Using a Roku box as a source, I had no issue with that. I set the output of the Roku to 4X3. It seemed work fine.

_________________"This will be the last radio I bring home. I PROMISE!"

Last year I bought and tested every model I could find on the market today and I was dissatisfied with all of them. The problem is that none properly handled the 16x9 to 4x3 conversion. What I wanted was one that would center-cut the 16x9 image. However, I would have settled for a letter-box conversion (black bars on the top and bottom). None would do this. They all distorted the image by compressing it horizontally to fit.

-Matthew

You could letter-box it yourself by mis-adjusting the height control. You could even add a switch and a resistor to make the height change easy!

Last year I bought and tested every model I could find on the market today and I was dissatisfied with all of them. The problem is that none properly handled the 16x9 to 4x3 conversion. What I wanted was one that would center-cut the 16x9 image. However, I would have settled for a letter-box conversion (black bars on the top and bottom). None would do this. They all distorted the image by compressing it horizontally to fit.

-Matthew

If you set the source device to 480P or 480I resolution, you may/should also get an option in that device to choose between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio; choose 4:3 and you should get a proper picture. In DVD players, these is/was also an option to choose between "4:3 letterbox" and "4:3 pan-and-scan"; look for that as well. All of these will be in the source device, none of the converters will have those options.

_________________Quote: (Antique TV collecting) always seemed to me to be a fringe hobby that only weirdos did.

What about one of these units ? I bought one off of E-bay for $15 ( looks like it was never used, & comes with a remote) and it has a ton of inputs and different formats. HDMI, USB, component , etc. I hooked it up to my predicta. Check out the video. Much better deal I think. IView- 3500 STBhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhYgD3HOBkITony